Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

QUARTERLY REVIEW, WINTER 1984
presence and experiences were as vital and important today as they
were in the past. Through the homily, the Bible and biblical forebears
lived again and thus could guide the generations.
A second homiletical format addressed the meaning of Jewish
religious and ethical life. The homily might typically center on a key
area of Jewish religious observance in order to explore the multiplicity
of spiritual and moral messages it contained. For example, a timely
homily on the observance of the Feast of Tabernacles (Heb., Sukkot,
see Lev. 23:39-43), a holy day which usually occurs in the middle of
the fall, might stress the need for our renewing our closeness with
nature. The preacher might suggest that we do this in order to
experience our shared "creatureliness" to the end that we may
recognize God as the creator. He or she might indicate that seven days
and nights spent in the outdoors, under roofs of natural material and
open enough to see the heavens, teaches us that the houses we build
sometimes protect us too well. In them we do not see or feel either the
grandeur of God or the shivering of those who have only huts as
shelter. In this way a ritual central to the observance of the Jewish
festivals becomes a challenge to recognize God more directly in our
lives and to begin again, with God's help, the work of redeeming the
downtrodden. The message is consistent with the rationale which
Torah gives for the observance, "so that your generations may know
that I provided shelters for the Israelites when I brought them forth
from Egypt, I am the Eternal" (Lev. 23:43, author's translation). It has
only been made more manifest and clear by the process of midrash.
Finally, Jewish preaching certainly has concerned itself with purely
theological themes as well. I did not, however, place this form of
homily first because it is a less commonplace phenomenon. In the
central work of rabbinic Judaism, the Talmud, little direct attention is
given to purely theological issues and dogma. This phenomenon set
the tone for Jewish teaching in general and for sermons as a particular
form of Jewish teaching. Nevertheless, important events confronting
the Jewish community from the outside or from within frequently set
off theological probing, discussion, and debate. For example,
Judaism's confrontation with the thinking of the Church Fathers led it
to consider the question of covenantal mutability and the question of
whether God changes His/Her mind. Similarly, Karaism, an internal
Jewish movement of the eighth century, which sought to dispense
with the rabbinic tradition and to understand the Bible as literally as
possible, moved rabbis to make theological responses. Obviously, the
rabbinic Jewish community was anxious to prove to itself and its
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